Interesting that he says the school committed to 105 scholarships.
(The House settlement sets roster limit of 105 but doesn’t require 105 scholarships. The SEC limits there members scholarships to 83.)
Scholarships is likely why they are leaving the BigSky. As an FCS independent they can recruit just like an FBS team, and schedule as they would have if the waiver had been granted.

I think the goal was to liberate NIL money, and a prerequisite for that was painting the picture of Sac being FBS. The Woods brothers see the future as one where big football programs thrive and small levels and programs suffer, and want to get into the big category. They apparently feel the Mountain West is on the wrong side of that divide. They got their NIL money and they made their pitch with success.
Now they have hit an obstacle, but the NCAA is toothless, and is on a long losing streak in the courts. It wouldn’t surprise me if the NCAA encourages a conference to invite Sac to avoid a potential law suit. They haven’t failed yet.

You lost me.
What do Jackson St, Colorado, Indiana, App St, Boise St have in common? Jackson State and Colorado I get.its Deion Sanders. He had a streaming channel reality show
App state to me is an argument for not moving to FBS, they went from being a massive FCS success to a mediocre team in a less than mediocre FBS conference. I can’t even spell their name.
Does Sac have a chance with their 2025 schedule to upset a Michigan, or an Oklahoma?

Sac has 39 transfers on the roster, and they are a mixed bag. About 18 are seniors or redshirt seniors; those guys all knew they would be playing an FCS schedule, whether the school was transitioning or not. The decision doesn’t really affect them. Many of the transfers committed before Sac announced they intended to transition this year. Maybe some of the younger ones will bail.

Sac might have a great year, if so they may get a conference invite, in which case getting turned down in their attempt to go independent could be in their interest,

Division 1 could split, separating off the power 4 conferences, and leaving the lesser conferences as essentially in the same situation FCS faces, being perceived as minor league. Sac may be trying to crash a party that has moved on.

Might be good for Sac to make a national impression in the playoffs. Assuming they don’t have too many scholarships for the Big Sky.

Those teams didn’t need a waiver, because they had a conference invite.

NAU returns a QB, whereas most Big Sky teams don’t, They made the playoffs.
Not following them but NAU seems to have lost more than they gained via transfer. I think Davis is one of the few that gained more than lost.

At least 3 FCS conferences, the CAA, Southland, and OVC-Big South have elected to not have conference rules limiting scholarships, meaning that schools opting into the House settlement can offer as many as 105 scholarships.
“The CAA and OVC-Big South also did not set a cap. The Big Sky and SoCon kept the football equivalency scholarship cap at 63 for 2025. The MVFC is deciding next week.”

https://herosports.com/fcs-southland-football-scholarship-cap-house-settlement-bzbz/

Davis has two of the top 25 FCS football tight ends, according to Hero Sports. Former Davis tight end Gale is also on the list, at 21.Gale graduated from Davis in the fall before transferring.

24. Ian Simpson, UC Davis
2. Winston Williams, UC Davis

https://herosports.com/fcs-football-top-returning-2025-tight-ends-bzbz/

I interpret Sailorgabe to mean he could make money by wagering on Sac.

To your list of costs, note that they are adding a substantial number of scholarships, i don’t see how they are at 63 as the conference rules call for, probably adding at least 20 scholarships in football and an equal amount in women's sports.

• Have Zaire Collier on, ask about the offense line, who is returning on the offensive line, and new names,
• Anyone who can give an overview of the defense, after they have enough time to put the depth chart together
• Closer to the Mercer game, a short Interview Anthony Soto about Mercer and his Davis career. and his coaching career

My concern is that they took the roster down because some players listed won’t be with the team
Since they said they aren’t going to do revenue sharing until 2026-27 year, i don’t think they signed onto the house settlement yet and therefore the 105 man roster limit doesn’t apply as yet, maybe it doesn’t in summer anyway.

They will be ineligible if they get approved for FBS next week. They will be all dressed up with no place to go.

What is negative about saying a guy, after he used up his eligibility left to see if he could play professionally?

Sports Illustrated Big Sky prediction.

1. Montana State
T2. Montana
T2. Northern Arizona
4. Sacramento State
5. UC Davis
6. Idaho
7. Weber State
8. Eastern Washington
9. Idaho State
10. Cal Poly
11. Portland State
12. Northern Colorado

* Sacramento State will be removed if the Hornets receive approval to transition to the FBS level later this month

https://www.si.com/college/fcs/big-sky/2025-big-sky-football-preview-fcs

Comment: Davis weakens it case by not posting a roster, they return more contributors than listed if we believe what we have heard ( five starters on the O-line for example, not the four SI lists)

This story sounds more accurate. Left school to pursue opportunity in CFL, so didn’t finish probably needed another quarter.
https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/uc-davis-student-graduates-after-more-47-years

There is a lot of bad reporting, so who knows?
But this does raise an interesting point, which is that there is no longer a rule that gives FBS a depth advantage. What besides losing the FCS label do teams get for moving to a lesser FBS conference aside from the chance to play in the Idaho potato bowl instead of the FCS playoff? The name doesn’t define the thing,

i read multiple sources that the 85 scholarship limit is gone, just the roster limit remains, conferences can set lower limits, as the SEC is keeping it at 83 in 2025. Big Sky keeping scholarships to 63.

Hero Sports: “ Athletic departments, FBS or FCS, that opt into the settlement will have a football roster limit of 105 players. With no scholarship limits, an FBS team could offer 105 scholarships if a conference doesn’t set a cap. Or, theoretically, an FBS school could have 95 players on scholarship and 10 walk-ons if they couldn’t fund all 105.”

NCSA:
“D1 FBS football programs will be allowed to offer up to 105 scholarships, up from the current limit of 85.
D1 FBS football programs will have a maximum roster limit of 105.
D1 FBS football, once a headcount sport, will now be classified as an equivalency sport. This change allows programs to offer a combination of partial and full scholarships to recruits”

So far Sac hasn’t spent hardly anything, but they are shortly going to have to pay the million dollar Big Sky exit fee, and fund the 105 scholarships they seem to be offering, plus the matching women’s scholarships, pay visiting teams, plus upgrade their facilities. I’m anticipating a few lawsuits over NIL money promised. At some point the Music Man has to produce a band.

They are going to be able to have 105 scholarships in 2026 if their FBS move is approved, where as the FCS teams they compare themselves to have lower scholarship limits, Big Sky is 63, so that is 42 more scholarships for Sac.